Bug 174 on 12lbs boost. Review please.

[Glider]

To be fair to Crumpp he is correct about the British having a better production and repair set up so the RAF were never in any real danger of running out of aircraft.

However the RAF were training more pilots than the Luftwaffe which enabled them to maintain the numbrs. No one is trying to pretend that the mid 1940 training of the RAF was up to pre war standards but then again neither was the Luftwaffe training.
The RAF trained 300 pilots a year in 1935, by August 1940 they were training 7,000 pilots a year. You do not get that size of increase without problems and shortages of everything, training aircraft, trainers, airfields take your pick. I do not know the numbers for the Luftwaffe but would expect them to also suffer shortages as they would also be ramping up whilst fighting a major campaign

Basically the RAF were better prepared infrastructure wise that the Luftwaffe (including fuel)

I totally disagree with his assertion that the Luftwaffe consistantly won the air battles. If he could support that with numbers lost compared to actual kills it would be interesting. Or he could explain why so many bomber raids were turned back before reaching the target, a lot got through but a lot didn't.

[CaptainDoggles]

Originally Posted by Glider

Or he could explain why so many bomber raids were turned back before reaching the target, a lot got through but a lot didn't.

My understanding was that the appalling losses inflicted by the Luftwaffe on RAF Bomber Command was instrumental in switching to night bombing, and the subsequent development of the various navigation aids such as Oboe, GEE, H2S, etc.

[Glider]

Originally Posted by CaptainDoggles

My understanding was that the appalling losses inflicted by the Luftwaffe on RAF Bomber Command was instrumental in switching to night bombing, and the subsequent development of the various navigation aids such as Oboe, GEE, H2S, etc.

Partly true. There is no doubt that the RAF switched its heavy long range bombers to night raids although a number of daylight raids continued all through the war. The RAF always had a strong interest in night raids for instance I don't think the Whitley was ever used on a daylight raid, but it is true to say that the losses forced a switch to night raids. However No 2 Group concentrated on daylight raids all through the war. I cannot think of any raids that did not get to the target, no doubt some didn't but the vast majority did.

But we are talking about the BOB. If the Germans according to Crumpp won the vast majority of the engagements, why were a number of the raids turned back.

[fruitbat]

Also, the mauling that the Luftwaffe bombers had during BoB (during the air battles that the Luftwaffe consistently won), was why they to switched to night bombing too, ever heard of the Blitz?

[Seadog]

Next Crumpp will be telling us that the Luftwaffe won the BofB...